Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an off or on grid wind turbine equipped with solar photovoltaic panels that self-clean by rotating in unison with rotation of airfoils of the wind turbine. The airfoils rotate within a circumferential region about an axial member. The solar photovoltaic panels are within a planar region and likewise rotate about the axial member. The planar region and the circumferential region are substantially transverse to each other.
The off or on grid wind turbine is for capturing and maximizing dissimilar airflow(s) through a series of magnetically levitated helical variable geometry asymmetrical airfoils. The airfoils multiply the resultant rotational force into kinetic energy, thereby creating the torque required to rotate a mechanical drive system composed of individually activate alternators. This creates 36 kW or more of onsite electricity.
Description of Related Art
The present inventor considers Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs) to suffer from inherent performance disadvantages that result from physical stress limitations and variations in wind velocity. The common shortcoming of VAWTs is the need for guy wires, resistance to self-starting (that is, high coefficient of drag), high bearing loads, limited over-speed control and the lack of destructive vibration dampening. It is desired to overcome these inherent problems with VAWTs.
There are also wind turbines equipped with stationary solar photovoltaic panels that convert solar energy into electricity. Surface transparency (cleanliness) plays a critical role in the penetration of solar radiation into the photovoltaic cell. Over time, solar photovoltaic panels may collect on their surfaces wind blown dust, sand and leaves, dew, rain, and melting snow or ice, depending upon the environment where they are situated. Such interferes with optimal solar collection. The cleaning of such stationary photovoltaic panels is a labor-intensive task that may require the use of custom tools and lifts or even the dismantling of the wind turbine just to take down the solar photovoltaic panels for cleaning.
There have been recommendations to attach the solar panels onto the exterior face of the turbine blades. In so doing, the turbine airfoils or blades self-clean because of centrifugal forces that arise from the blade rotation.
Even so, one of the greatest drawbacks is the fact that for a photovoltaic cell to work at maximum efficiency, it must be perpendicular to the incoming solar radiation. In the case of a HAWT, both the optimal wind direction and the incidence of solar radiation during the day must cooperate to coincide with each other in order to realize maximum efficiency for both wind and solar. Obviously, such an fortuitous occurrence seldom occurs.
In the case of a VAWT, the incidence of radiation from the sun will be optimal for a portion of the blade rotation, but not for the remaining portion, because then the photovoltaic panel faces away from the sun. Nevertheless, dwell time exposure is another key factor in determining photovoltaic cell output.
The placement of the photovoltaic cells on vertical surfaces that rotate (as is the case for a VAWT) drastically diminishes photovoltaic efficiency since the cells face toward the sun for a portion of the rotation and face away from the sun for the remainder. In effect, the photovoltaic exposure to the sun is broken during each rotation and thus is not steady or continuous, which can adversely affect reaching or maintaining needed excitation levels for the photovoltaic efficiency to optimize.